sewts is turning towel-feeding robots into a laundry automation layer

A 700-textile-per-hour VELUM cell, one-day setup claim, and 7 million euro Series A target one of the remaining manual steps inside industrial laundries.

8 Aug 23

sewts.VELUM feeds towels and other terrycloth into folding machines at up to 700 textiles per hour, with a one-day setup time. The product handles textiles from 30 by 30 centimeters to 100 by 200 centimeters and up to 3 kilograms, addressing a laundry workflow that remains stubbornly manual even after washing and drying are automated.

sewts was founded in Munich in 2019 and launched its first series-ready product in 2022. Co-founder and CEO Alexander Bley has positioned the company around robotic handling of deformable materials, where every contact changes the shape of the object. The company raised EUR7 million in Series A funding in August 2023 to roll out VELUM across international laundries.

A towel has to be picked, spread, oriented, and fed without wrinkles into a folding machine. Industrial laundries often automate washing, drying, and folding mechanics, while people still stand at feeding stations. sewts says 30% of personnel costs can come from equipping folding machines.

sewts says VELUM can outperform manual labor after 1.5 to 2.5 years, depending on workload. Its listed customer references include Stangelmayer, Aschenbrenner, Korian and Greif.

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